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Latest Articles: Science/Tech
How smart are killer whales?
Post Date: 2010-03-09 12:26:40 by Prefrontal Vortex
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How smart are killer whales? Orcas have 2nd-biggest brains of all marine mammals By KEVIN SPEAR Orlando Sentinel March 8, 2010, 1:07PM ORLANDO, Fla. — Neuroscientist Lori Marino and a team of researchers explored the brain of a dead killer whale with an MRI and found an astounding potential for intelligence. Killer whales, or orcas, have the second-biggest brains among all ocean mammals, weighing as much as 15 pounds. It’s not clear whether they are as well-endowed with memory cells as humans, but scientists have found they are amazingly well-wired for sensing and analyzing their watery, three-dimensional environment. Scientists are trying to better understand how killer ...
Antarctic Glacier Has Five-story Blood-red Waterfall of Primordial Ooze
Post Date: 2010-03-08 16:44:36 by Ferret
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There is a five-story, blood-red waterfall pouring slowly from the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valley. Its back story, at Atlas Obscura, is simply remarkable: Roughly 2 million years ago, the Taylor Glacier sealed beneath it a small body of water which contained an ancient community of microbes. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, they have remained there ever since, isolated inside a natural time capsule. Evolving independently of the rest of the living world, these microbes exist without heat, light, or oxygen, and are essentially the definition of "primordial ooze." The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the waterfall ...
It's official: An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs
Post Date: 2010-03-06 09:24:48 by Ferret Mike
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LONDON (Reuters) – A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs, a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades. A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years' worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a "hellish environment" around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet. Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where ...
Tons of Water Ice Found on the Moon's North Pole
Post Date: 2010-03-01 23:11:07 by gengis gandhi
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Tons of Water Ice Found on the Moon's North Pole Tariq Malik SPACE.com Managing Editor SPACE.com – Mon Mar 1, 7:00 pm ET This story was updated at 6:39 p.m. ET. Vast pockets of water ice numbering in the millions of tons have been discovered at the north pole of the moon, opening up another region of the lunar surface for potential exploration by astronauts and unmanned probes, NASA announced Monday. A NASA radar instrument on an Indian moon probe found evidence of at least 600 million metric tons of water ice spread out on the bottom of craters at the lunar north pole. It is yet another supply of lunar water ice, a vital resource that could be mined to produce oxygen or rocket ...
Al Gore wishes global warming weren't real
Post Date: 2010-02-28 20:50:37 by buckeroo
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Former Vice President Al Gore, the target of ridicule by climate skeptics this winter, says he wishes global warming were an "illusion." Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has long warned of the dangers of global warming. He spoke about them during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. CAPTION By Axel Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images Unfortunately, its dangers are real, despite mistakes by a leading United Nations climate-science panel, Gore writes Sunday in the New York Times. "The overwhelming consensus on global warming remains unchanged," he says, adding: In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million ...
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence - SETI@home
Post Date: 2010-02-28 07:26:42 by wudidiz
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What is SETI@home?
Global Warming Update
Post Date: 2010-02-26 06:57:18 by Ada
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www.JewishWorldReview.com | Private industry and governments around the world have spent trillions of dollars in the name of saving our planet from manmade global warming. Academic institutions, think tanks and schools have altered their curricula and agenda to accommodate what was seen as the global warming "consensus." Mounting evidence suggests that claims of manmade global warming might turn out to be the greatest hoax in mankind's history. Immune and hostile to the evidence, President Barack Obama's administration and most of the U.S. Congress sides with Climate Czar Carol Browner, who says, "I'm sticking with the 2,500 scientists. These people have been ...
Croat scientist warns ice age overdue, could start in five years (or sooner)
Post Date: 2010-02-25 16:49:31 by abraxas
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Croat scientist warns ice age overdue, could start in five years (or sooner) A leading scientist has revealed that Europe could be just five years away from the start of a new Ice Age. While climate change campaigners say global warming is the planet's biggest danger, renowned physicist Vladimir Paar says most of central Europe will soon be covered in ice. The freeze will be so complete that people will be able to walk from England to Ireland or across the North Sea from Scotland to northern Europe. Professor Paar, from Croatia's Zagreb University, has spent decades analysing previous ice ages in Europe and what caused them. "Most of Europe will be under ice, including ...
Flying into the future: New Zealand company to make personal jet packs
Post Date: 2010-02-25 14:08:32 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Flying into the future: New Zealand company to make personal jet packs A company in New Zealand is to begin production of a commercial jet pack. Martin Aircraft Company, in Christchurch, New Zealand, aims to make 500 packs a year which will sell for around £50,000. The 200 horsepower dual-propeller packs are the brainchild of inventor Glenn Martin who unveiled his machine for the first time in July last year. Because it weighs less than 254 pounds (115kg) the jet pack does not require a pilot's licence. It is capable of travelling 30 miles in 30 minutes on a full tank of fuel. And recent tests have seen the newest model reach heights of up to 2,400 metres and top speeds of 60 ...
Haste Leaves Anthrax Case Unconcluded
Post Date: 2010-02-25 06:35:38 by Ada
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NEW YORK — Probably not very many readers of this space are subscribers to the scientific journal Aerosol Science and Technology. Neither am I. But an article in that publication published in March 2008 has acquired considerable significance in light of the announcement by the F.B.I. last week that it would close its nine-year investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. Aerosol Science and Technology reported on an attempt by a group of scientists at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to reproduce the dry, powderized substance that was found in one of the anthrax-laden envelopes mailed by the perpetrator of the attacks, in which 5 people were killed, 17 were ...
When using open source makes you an enemy of the state
Post Date: 2010-02-24 15:39:00 by freepatriot32
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The US copyright lobby has long argued against open source software - now Indonesia's in the firing line for encouraging the idea in government departments It's only Tuesday and already it's been an interesting week for the world of digital rights. Not only did the British government changed the wording around its controversial 'three strikes' proposals, but the secretive anti-counterfeiting treaty, Acta, was back in the headlines. Meanwhile, a US judge is still deliberating over the Google book settlement. As if all that wasn't enough, here's another brick to add to the teetering tower of news, courtesy of Andres Guadamuz, a lecturer in law at the University ...
New species of dinosaur found in eastern Utah rock
Post Date: 2010-02-24 02:08:44 by farmfriend
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New species of dinosaur found in eastern Utah rock By MIKE STARK, AP SALT LAKE CITY — Fossils of a previously undiscovered species of dinosaur have been found in slabs of Utah sandstone that were so hard that explosives had to be used to free some of the remains, scientists said Tuesday. The bones found at Dinosaur National Monument belonged to a type of sauropod — long-necked plant-eaters that were said to be the largest animal ever to roam land. The discovery included two complete skulls from other types of sauropods — an extremely rare find, scientists said. The fossils offer fresh insight into lives of dinosaurs some 105 million years ago, including the evolution of ...
New Climate Agency Head Tried to Suppress Data, Critics Charge
Post Date: 2010-02-22 18:46:25 by farmfriend
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New Climate Agency Head Tried to Suppress Data, Critics Charge By Ed Barnes FOXNews.com Updated February 22, 2010 Thomas Karl, the head of Obama's new Climate Change office has been criticized for trying to suppress contradictory scientific data on climate change. The scientist who has been put in charge of the Commerce Department's new climate change office is coming under attack from both sides of the global warming debate over his handling of what they say is contradictory scientific data related to the subject. Thomas Karl, 58, was appointed to oversee NOAA's new National Climatic Data Center, an ambitious office that will collect climate change data and disseminate it ...
Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels
Post Date: 2010-02-22 18:26:25 by farmfriend
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Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels Study claimed in 2009 that sea levels would rise by up to 82cm by the end of century – but the report's author now says true estimate is still unknown David Adam Guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 February 2010 18.00 GMT Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings. The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level ...
The Bloom Box (energy fuel cell)
Post Date: 2010-02-22 18:19:50 by farmfriend
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The Bloom Box February 21, 2010 5:00 PM Large corporations have been testing a new device that can generate power on the spot, without being connected to the electric grid. Will we have one in every home someday? Video:http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n&tag=api
Departing climate chief pessimistic on Cancún
Post Date: 2010-02-21 03:31:47 by buckeroo
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Hopes that the world’s biggest polluters will strike a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions this year have been dashed by the outgoing United Nations official in charge of the talks. Yvo de Boer, whose unexpected resignation as the UN’s climate change chief this week dismayed policymakers and campaigners, said there was a “big question mark” over whether a meeting of the world’s biggest economies in December would produce a treaty to tackle global warming.
USC Gets $25M Grant To Study Below Earth's Surface
Post Date: 2010-02-21 00:40:37 by buckeroo
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LOS ANGELES (CBS) 53; USC is getting a 25 million dollar grant to study the "world of life" below the earth's surface. The grant is from the National Science Foundation and it will help the university create a new science and technology center called The Center For Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations. The center will study life forms that live below the earth's surface including soils, aquifers, and rocks underneath the ocean's floor. Among the center's goals are to advance the tools needed for sea sub- seafloor biosphere research; train and educate a new and diverse generation of undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral deep sub-seafloor researchers ...
Garbage in, fuel out.
Post Date: 2010-02-19 23:21:02 by Armadillo
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Load municipal solid waste into this machine and get power and high grade fuel in return. Sound like a dream? It's being tested by the army. They have 72 guaranteed foreign contracts so far, but none in the U.S. For a couple of years, Green Power, Inc (GPI) has had a 100 ton per day model plant in Pasco, Washington that turns municipal solid waste (MSW) and other like feedstock such as biomass into high grade fuel. This technology enables the replacement of limited, fossil-based oil with fuel that comes from garbage, which can be thought of as a form of free, sustainable energy, because as long as there are people on the planet, there will be waste. What's more, usually communities ...
Lord Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul
Post Date: 2010-02-18 07:34:26 by James Deffenbach
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Poster Comment:On the subject of "global warming," this guy is great. He scares Al Gore to death and Al will NOT debate him.
U.S. Owns Up to Secret Hunt for Sunken Soviet Sub
Post Date: 2010-02-14 12:03:01 by Jethro Tull
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WASHINGTON – In 1974, far out in the Pacific, a U.S. ship pretending to be a deep-sea mining vessel fished a sunken Soviet nuclear-armed submarine out of the ocean depths, took what it could of the wreck and made off to Hawaii with its purloined prize. Now, Washington is owning up to Project Azorian, a brazen mission from the days of high-stakes — and high-seas — Cold War rivalry. After more than 30 years of refusing to confirm the barest facts of what the world already knew, the CIA has released an internal account of Project Azorian, though with juicy details taken out. The account surfaced Friday at the hands of private researchers from the National Security Archive who ...
49 states dusted with snow; Hawaii's the holdout
Post Date: 2010-02-14 10:46:23 by christine
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Forty-nine states have snow now, from the Gulf Coast's Redneck Riviera to the skyscrapers of Dallas. The lone holdout? Hawaii. Although snow falls every winter on Hawaii's two tallest volcanoes, the National Weather Service in Honolulu said there was no snow in the state Friday. SCIENCE FAIR: January was Earth's warmest on record Snow had even fallen in the Florida Panhandle and along the South Carolina coast. However, snow has been lighter than usual in New England. Forecasters say El Nino has driven many of this year's storms southward. Weather service meteorologist Brian Korty says it's extremely rare to have so many states with snow.
Ancient Greenland gene map has a surprise
Post Date: 2010-02-11 14:01:51 by F.A. Hayek Fan
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have sequenced the DNA from four frozen hairs of a Greenlander who died 4,000 years ago in a study they say takes genetic technology into several new realms. Surprisingly, the long-dead man appears to have originated in Siberia and is unrelated to modern Greenlanders, Morten Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues found. "This provides evidence for a migration from Siberia into the New World some 5,500 years ago, independent of that giving rise to the modern Native Americans and Inuit," the researchers wrote in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Not only can the findings help transform the study of archeology, but ...
Climate Fight Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze
Post Date: 2010-02-11 05:18:38 by Disgusted
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Climate Fight Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze By JOHN M. BRODER Published: February 10, 2010 WASHINGTON — As millions of people along the East Coast hole up in their snowbound homes, the two sides in the climate-change debate are seizing on the mounting drifts to bolster their arguments. Skeptics of global warming are using the record-setting snows to mock those who warn of dangerous human-driven climate change — this looks more like global cooling, they taunt. Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events. But some independent climate experts say the ...
Is There Nothing E. coli Cannot Do? The Borg Edition
Post Date: 2010-02-09 11:32:12 by Prefrontal Vortex
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Anthony Lane on Darwin Infecting Big Think Is There Nothing E. coli Cannot Do? The Borg Edition In my book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, I describe how this humble germ helped make modern biology possible–and, in the process, has been engineered to do all sorts of remarkable things. In 2008, I blogged a fresh example, courtesy of Jeff Hasty and his colleagues. They retooled the bacteria to flash in clock-like rhythms. Now Hasty has taken another step forward, rejiggering E. coli so that millions of bacteria can flash in waves. The new paper’s in Nature, and the journal put together a lovely video of the bacteria in hive-mind performance. Check it out below.
The global warming guerrillas
Post Date: 2010-02-09 06:30:25 by Ada
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Matt Ridley salutes the bloggers who changed the climate debate. While most of Fleet Street kowtowed to the green lobby, online amateurs uncovered the spin and deception that finally cracked the consensus Journalists are wont to moan that the slow death of newspapers will mean a disastrous loss of investigative reporting. The web is all very well, they say, but who will pay for the tenacious sniffing newshounds to flush out the real story? ‘Climategate’ proves the opposite to be true. It was amateur bloggers who scented the exaggerations, distortions and corruptions in the climate establishment; whereas newspaper reporters, even after the scandal broke, played poodle to their ...
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